One of the most important factors contributing to the effective use of a computer and phone devices is the interface between a human and a device. The most popular humanxe2x80x94computer interface is a keyboard. A commonly used computer keyboard has nearly 100 keys in order to facilitate the user input, and it is based on a matrix of electrical switches that are called keys. A keyboard for small devices has a reduced size and the keys have a special property. Pressing a key more than once produces a different action on the interface. Although such keyboards are commonly used and widely accepted, they do not often provide a very efficient or easy way to use electronic devices.
Mobile devices, such as cellular phones or palm top computers, have become very popular in the last few years. These devices are hand-held and they are provided with a keyboard for user input and with a display for showing the results of the inputs. However, users do not always want to carry mobile devices in their hands, nor is it always easy to input data into the devices.
A prior art arrangement to avoid the use of a keyboard is disclosed in xe2x80x9cHIT-Wearxe2x80x9d: Input Interface for Wearable Computers Utilizing Visual Feedback and Physical Sense by Sasaki, H., Kuroda, T., Chihara, K. in Correspondence on Human Interface, Vol. 1, No. 4, which is incorporated herein by reference. In this arrangement, a hand is placed in front of the face and the device identifies the fingertips. The user is wearing a head-mounted display, which shows him a menu related to the use of the device, such that one function key of the menu is displayed outwards from each fingertip. When the user touches a particular key, the corresponding function is carried out. However, a drawback of the arrangement is that even though it enables rapid selection of a desired command or operation, only a few commands or operations can be shown at a time to the user. Another drawback is that the arrangement is not really suitable for inputting alphanumerical or other symbolic data.
An object of the invention is to provide a method and a device implementing the method, such that augmented reality can be used to realize a compact user interface in a matrix form, with which interface commands and symbolic data can be input into the device in a simple manner. This is achieved with a method disclosed in the introduction of using a portable mobile communication device, the method comprising: forming an image of a hand of the user and recognizing the natural partition of the hand; forming an augmented reality image by overlaying an image of a desired user interface on the image of the hand recognized visually by the user; selecting a desired segment by touching a suitable partition on the hand; recognizing the selection on the hand; and performing a function related to the segment in the device.
The invention also relates to a method of using a portable mobile communication device, the method comprising: forming an image of a hand of the user and recognizing the natural partition of the hand; forming an augmented reality image of a user interface of the device by overlaying an image of a desired user interface on the image of the hand; showing a user the augmented reality image of the user interface; selecting a desired segment by touching a suitable partition on the hand; recognizing the selection on the hand; and performing a function related to the segment in the device.
The invention further relates to a portable mobile communication device comprising a video camera unit, a display unit, a transceiver unit and a digital signal processing unit that is arranged to control the operation of the portable mobile communication device: wherein the video camera is arranged to form a video image of a user""s hand and to feed the image into the digital signal processing unit, which is arranged to recognize the natural partition of the hand in the video image; the digital signal processing unit is arranged to feed an image of a user interface into the display and to form an augmented reality image of the user interface of the device by overlaying an image of a desired user interface on the image of the user""s hand seen by the user; a desired segment is selected by the user by touching a suitable partition on the hand; the digital signal processing unit is arranged to recognize the selection on the hand; and the device is arranged to perform a function related to the segment.
The invention also relates to a portable mobile communication device comprising a video camera unit, a display unit, a transceiver unit and a digital signal processing unit that is arranged to control the operation of the portable mobile communication device, wherein: the video camera is arranged to form a video image of a user""s hand and to feed the image into the digital signal processing unit, which is arranged to recognize the natural partition of the hand in the video image; the digital signal processing unit is arranged to form an augmented reality image of a user interface of the device by overlaying an image of a desired user interface on the image of the user""s hand; the digital signal processing unit is arranged to feed the augmented reality image of the user interface into the display, which is arranged to show the image to the user; a desired segment is selected by the user by touching a suitable partition on the hand; the digital signal processing unit is arranged to recognize the selection on the hand; and the device is arranged to perform a function related to the segment.
The invention further relates to a portable mobile communication device comprising a virtual reality gloves unit, a position tracking unit, a display unit, a transceiver unit and a digital signal processing unit that is arranged to control the operation of the portable mobile communication device, wherein: the virtual reality gloves are arranged to feed information on the user""s hand into the digital signal processing unit, which is arranged to form an image of the hand and to recognize the natural partition of the hand; the digital signal processing unit is arranged to form an augmented reality image of a user interface of the device by overlaying an image of a desired user interface on the image of the user""s hand; the digital signal processing unit is arranged to feed the augmented reality image of the user interface into the display, which is arranged to show the image to the user; a desired segment is selected by the user by touching a suitable partition on the hand; the digital signal processing unit is arranged to recognize the selection on the hand; and the device is arranged to perform a function related to the segment.
The preferred embodiments of the invention are disclosed in the dependent claims.
An essential feature of the invention is that the user interface is implemented without any actual physical element. The actual physical part of the user interface is replaced by the user""s own hand. The portable electronic device is operated by pointing at input segments which are shown on the user""s hand. This operation is implemented by means of augmented reality where an image of the hand seen by the user is supplemented with a display for the information of the user interface. The user interface information includes the menu and the results, which are visible to the user in the form of segments. The segments are preferably displayed on the hand according to the symbolic partition of the hand, i.e. how the contours of the hand and the joints of the fingers divide the hand into symbolic sectors.
The method and the system according to the invention provide several advantages. Even though a physical user interface is not needed to carry out the functions of the device, it is possible to utilize the input of symbolic or alphanumerical data or data based on other characters. When numerals or symbols are used, the operation of the device is independent of the user""s language.